Taps open up at drinking holes
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Friday June 5, 2020 15:40
Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Peggy Serame has been hailed as a hero for burrowing down to an underground soak and supplying water to an array of native fauna hard hit by this unusual drought.
With the memes that have been going around on social media, Serame has been compared to water diviner by liquor imbibers because of how she dug right at the location of the underground drinking source.
The hole has been dug intentionally to quench thirst but with conditions.
Usually a drinking hole is a place where all the carnivores and herbivores gather to drink but now the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)eased restrictions make them no ordinary watering holes. Because of the two months of drought, drinking sources have attracted a variety of fauna but no one is allowed to consume at the stream source.
Now as the thirstiest amongst the lot crowd at the source for their first quench in a long time, drinking holes and service deliveries have found just about the perfect ways to branch their tributaries and take alcoholic beverages to those who are unable to wait their turn at the source.
The strong culture of on premises alcohol consumption is clearly threatened, but these service deliveries are trying to stay on top of changing conditions. Popular liquor outlets like Liquorama have specified that pre-orders can be placed on Monday and Tuesday for delivery on Wednesday.
“Orders will be delivered from 10am to 6pm on Wednesday and 10am to 4pm on Saturdays.
Our expected delivery time is 90 minutes from time of order (for same day delivery),” a document from the store reads.
The delivery, however, is exclusive to residents of Gaborone, Tlokweng, Mogoditshane, Mokolodi and Phakalane. “The minimum order value is P500 and a delivery fee of P40 applies.” Besides Liquorama, there are delivery services like Sterr-Boy, which was motivated by the COVID-19 lockdown.
“The lockdown was meant to reduce movement to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, we knew people would still want to go to the shops to buy necessities.
“We thought why not support the idea of lockdown and start a company that will buy and deliver groceries for customers at their homes? We deliver groceries, beverages and other necessities depending on the location of that customer,” Gilbert Seagile told Arts & Culture.
Seagile said they also run errands for customers such as paying bills or collecting the mail. For now deliveries are extended to Gaborone and Greater Gaborone.
We are working on buying essentials from South Africa and we are on the verge of expanding into cross-border delivery. We are in talks with authorities to get licensed to do cross-border delivery,” he highlighted.
There is also an online alcohol delivery service Typsy Deliveries, which does not trade in alcohol but merely offers alcohol deliveries for its partner licensed liquor retailers.
“Returns are processed by our partner stores and are subject to their individual return policies.
If the wrong product has been delivered or is spoiled, stores will commonly coordinate a time to pick up the product for a return. In these instances, returns are usually accepted within five days of the purchase.
No refunds allowed,” reveals a statement in the Typsy Deliveries website.
Their website is a catalogue of available stock from their partners and they only facilitate deliveries for listed items only.
It is still early days, but e-commerce channels for alcohol have a potential to do well. For brand owners, perhaps this is the wake-up call they needed to start investing resources in e-commerce.